Vanina Vanini

"Vanina Vanini"
Poster from the 1961 film version
Author	Stendhal
Language	French
Series	Chroniques italiennes (Italian Chronicles)

Vanina Vanini is a short story published in 1829 by Stendhal (1783–1842), the nom de plume of Marie-Henri Beyle. Set in 1820s during the early Risorgimento, when Italy was under Austrian control, it concerns the love affair of a young Roman princess and a revolutionary carbonaro.

Vanina Vanini, the nineteen-year-old daughter of a Roman aristocrat, Don Asdrubale Vanini, is sought after by all the young princes of Rome, but refuses them all, for of "the same [reason] that led Sulla to abdicate: her contempt for the Romans." When she notices that her usually carefree father is taking pains to lock up one room in his palace, and that a window in that room that was closed when she left is open, she begins to investigate.

Vanina finds another window that lets out on the same terrace, and looks through into the mysterious room. There, she sees a wounded woman lying in bed, as well as bloodstained woman's clothing that seems to have been pierced many times with a knife. She observes her father come up to the room and speak to the woman, though she cannot hear what the two are saying. Vanina is fascinated by the mysterious woman, and when, one evening, the woman sees Vanina spying, Vanina falls to her knees and tells the woman that she loves her and is devoted to her.

The woman, who gives her name as Clementina, asks Vanina to visit her every day, but to keep the visits a secret from her father. Vanina wonders why the woman is hurt and must stay hidden; perhaps she has rejected a powerful man, or killed her lover. Clementina does not want the assistance of a surgeon, because surgeons are required to report wounds that they treat to the police, but Vanina offers to bring her a surgeon loyal to the family.

The woman then reveals that she is in fact a man, Pietro Missirilli, a carbonaro and the nineteen-year-old son of a surgeon from Sant'Angelo in Vado. Missirilli's group had been ambushed and he taken in chains to Rome, but after thirteen months, he was helped to escape in disguise as a woman. However, as he left the prison, in a moment of folly he struck and killed a guard who cursed the carbonari, and was pursued through Rome and wounded. Finding himself in the garden of Countess Vitelleschi, Don Asdrubale's mistress, he was spirited away in the latter's carriage. Don Asdrubale has thus saved his life, but he is dying of his wound.

That night, a surgeon arrives alone: Vanina's pride has been wounded by Missirilli's confession, and she does not want to see him. She is conflicted, struggling between love and pride, but eventually returns and confesses her love; soon after there is "nothing left that she could withhold from him."